An enterprise may test a variety of computer applications, such as purchased or leased applications that have been developed externally, applications developed by the enterprise for internal use, and applications developed by the enterprise for external use. The enterprise may test the applications on test computers that are configured similarly to the computers that are expected to use the applications. Because thorough testing of an application may require time-consuming tests conducted using significant amounts of test data, application testers may use a testing tool to automate the testing process.
Application testers may write a test of an application using a scripting language that executes a series of commands that might otherwise have to be entered interactively through a keyboard at a command prompt. A scripting language may insulate application testers from the intricacies of more formal development and from usage of programming tools designed for application developers. A scripting language also may make it easy for an application tester with specific knowledge (an engineer, statistician, economist, etc.) to test a specified application.
An application tester may use a testing tool to input an application that is to be tested on a test computer and to also use an automatic testing script to launch or to execute the application under test. The testing tool may also allocate a test computer for the application and launch the application under test on the test computer by executing the automatic testing script. Such a testing tool may use an application program interface, such as a web portal, accessed through a user interface to test applications. Despite the automated testing offered by testing tools executing automation scripts to test applications, the process of testing applications still may be very time-consuming.